Discover the Power of Library of Congress Primary Sources…and Books

This guest post is from the Library of Congress Teacher in Residence, Earnestine Sweeting.

Did you miss the 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival? The weekend was filled with bestselling authors, book-signings, and presentations. The Library of Congress had its own pavilion featuring Library staff introducing attendees to the wonders of the Library. The Library’s K-12 education staff were there talking about the Library’s free educational resources and giving away appreciation gifts for teachers and school librarians.

Many units within the Library had the opportunity to do a presentation for attendees. Educational Outreach staff helped attendees “Discover the Power of Library of Congress Primary Sources…and Books”. I’ve been a teacher for many years but I’ve never taught in such an environment. Imagine an outdoor classroom with hundreds of kids and families strolling, life-sized story book characters roaming, and bursts of cheers booming from tents near and far – during instruction? I knew that it would be a challenge to engage the audience in deep thinking amidst the excitement.

Analyzing Primary Sources at the National Book Festival

To start, I prepared book festival-goers to draw conclusions and make inferences for a set of three primary sources. Then I asked that they keep mental notes about each item individually, but also plan to formulate a hypothesis about the relationship between the three primary sources. First, visitors were invited to analyze their own printout of a drawing by civil war sketch artist Alfred Waud, discuss their observations with a neighbor and say what they thought when they viewed the picture. “It looks like people helping the injured,” a response called out from the distance. Another response called out from an even further distance wondered, “Is this from the Civil War?”

3 Comments

the books are two axio .when you studies any books you may select two way after study:1 you can to agree with athour,s idea if you right you use this idea any where and development that idea2-you can dont accept with book,s matter you can protest that idea
the libraries can developing any ideas good and bad
the libraries are manpower center in the world

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